Day school tuition not yet ‘a crisis,’ officials say

It is beyond distressing to hear a senior Jewish school official saying that day school tuitions of almost 14,000 per child is not yet “a crisis”.

When will it be a crisis? When his school closes? Or when he loses his job? When?

What about the growing crisis of Jewish continuity that our community faces, which is the predictable fallout from the huge proportion of Jewish children in Ontario who go without a Jewish day school education since their families cannot afford it?

Contrary to this official’s statement, the affordability problem not that parents are not willing to make a “choice …in terms of their discretionary income”. Current high tuition levels, and unrealistic subsidies, are such that many families (especially those with more than two children) are effectively expected to lose their houses and retirement security to pay for a Jewish day school education.

Even if the Ontario government has abandoned its obligation to fix the current religious discrimination in school funding, we need community leadership to harness our existing community resources to ensure that every child who wants a Jewish day school education gets it.
Michael Orr
45 Brookview Drive, Toronto

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I read with interest the letter from the head of the Leo Baeck School, titled” Day school tuition not yet a crisis.” I commend you for your role in Jewish Education, but I disagree.

Day School Tuition is in a huge crisis!

I personally know too many parents, who sadly send their kids to public school, cause of financial reasons. This is a crisis!

Can we take responsibility for these kids who intermarry & assimilate, cause they could not afford Jewish Day School Tuition? No one should be turned away!

Our leaders & community need to be proactive to save our Jewish children! We must look at ALL schools & ALL communities, & we’ll see that indeed this is a crisis now!

We have lost too many Jewish children! As the Talmud says, one who save one person has saved a world! As the Lubavitcher Rebbe said, we must think every day for 1 half hour about Jewish Education! May we have nachas from our children!